He realises what people are saying, that Kilkenny are facing into a difficult couple of years now.

But Cody insists he had no hesitation about coming back for a 19th year.

"If I were to pause to think do I or don't I want it...I haven't had to pause," explained Cody.

"If I did, I should have only one answer.

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody with the Corn Ui Dhuill Cup that he won as captain of St Kieran's College team in 1971 during the Top Oil Leinster Senior A Hurling Championship Launch at St Kieran's College in Kilkenny.

"So there's no pause. It's always just been year to year for me, and I haven't checked the actual contract...it doesn't exist, so I don't know!

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"I would never presume where we're going to go any year," came the reply.

"We just try and get things ready to roll. I would always think the competition is serious - in the last couple of years, it's been really serious.

"It's not the first time it's happened, either. You go back to 2013, we got knocked out in the quarter-final as well. So we can never say, 'Look, quarter-final. We'll get there'."

Cody hopes that injury-hit Michael Fennelly will be back in harness, but acknowledges that's an unknown right now.

Colin Fennelly and Paul Murphy are on army duty in the Lebanon until May. And the supply line isn't too bountiful right now.

"In the last number of years at under-21, we haven’t had success," acknowledged Cody.

"We got to the final this year and were well beaten by a very good Limerick team.

"In the past number of years we haven’t got out of Leinster. The general thinking would be that it’s going to be very difficult for us to get back being really competitive, maybe for a couple of years.

"Obviously that’s not the mentality we would be approaching it with ourselves. We would be doing everything that’s humanly possible to get back.

"It starts essentially with the Walsh Cup. We realise that we're not in the top four or five teams at the moment, because the records are there.

"The challenge is there for us - but it’s a good challenge to have in front of us." Cody is asked if it's the biggest one of his stellar career, and he smiles.

"Well, I've probably been there a while but it has been presumed more than once that we were going to go away by people who consider these things," he remarked.

"So there have been many challenges. It's a challenge every single year. That's the great thing about this sport and every sport.

"But is the challenge great now? Of course it is.

"It's light years away at the moment, the All-Ireland. It's light years away every year we start. We never look as far as the All-Ireland final, even when we had some good success.

"We always look at where we are now and what we need to do from now on.

"We'll put our heads down, we'll work and get on with it. We won't even mention the All-Ireland"